Misty’s Reviews > Seers and Sibyls > Status Update

More marvelous poetry here; I got a delicious shiver from Sigrid reading tarot, wondering about the gods. Whittle's "Love Me Nots" invests the child's game of petal-pulling with a new gravity, and I adored the mix of playfulness and longing. Yap's Mingxi had a poignant struggle against family expectations, and the style of Baldwin's "Man in Broken Glass" swept me away. So good!

My latest bite of this book was delicious: some wonderful poetry; a chilling and surprising tale of Bergdis and Mimir, the prophetic head of Norse mythology; and, a story I'm very attached to, "Diwona," which tells of the seeress who set Brutus on his path to found Britain. Every piece in this collection is a polished gem.

This book continues to be full of amazing surprises and twists, and I've traveled so many places: gathering secrets in the woods; consulting a Chotaw isht ahullo in the bayou. I've frozen my fingers in Scandinavia, watched with Woman in Nigeria, wept for a falcon in Celtic lands, sunned myself in Italy, and shivered at a demanding anaconda in Egypt. So many journeys, and all of them wondrous.

In which we encounter naga--ancient beings half-human, half-snake (a pattern of my beloved Melusine)--and sheydim, not demons as they may be called, only that which some among us would seek to demonize. These stories so far are so strong, and the poems a journey all their own.

"During prayer, she listened to the voices around her and wondered whether they were all just going through the motions, or whether they still had faith. Were they liars, hypocrites, or fools?" (15)

I forgot where I was while reading "Bearer of the Gods"--Victoria Brun completely sucked me in!